The 1st stanza creates a strong image of the power of the moose. The Bull Moose, comes down from atop a “mountain”, this image represents Christ, coming forth from heaven, above all else, as the son of god. The moose walks “down through a purple mist” amongst “white spruce and cedar”. To compliment the image of the mountain, the symbols of colour and smell, suggest an image of perfection and royalty. Like the mythical white robe and unnatural mist that ever so often is used to portray Christ and God; the moose is surrounded by a forest of perfection complete with the clean “white” trees and the crisp pleasant smell of “cedar”. The second stanza begins an almost parallel sequence of events with the “Bull Moose” in the narrative and “Christ” within the allegorical framework. The moose becomes trapped with “no place left to go” and “stands with the cattle” as they turn away and “move to the other end of the field”. The Bull Moose is helpless forgotten by the “cattle” his own kind, creating the image of not only Christ being ignored by his people but our selfish humanity in general, whether towards ourselves or nature caring only for ones personal fortune. Nowlan continues his story, and in the narrative adds a stronger message of are treatment towards the natural world, creating a perfect symbolic contrast, the children “tease him” and young men “snicker”, as they try to “pour beer down his throat”. The “Bull Moose”, like nature is powerless, unaided, and can not defend.
The narrative is almost self explanatory, but within the mythical parallel is an image of the torture and cruelty against Christ, and all of history’s great martyrs, despite the torture, they, like an “old tolerant collie” does nothing. In the 5th stanza the poems only direct reference to Christ is made, the moose lets “a giggling girl plant a little purple cap of thistles on his head”. This is a very clear reference to the same thorns that were placed upon Christ, and is yet another symbol of human cruelty within the image. The 6th and 7th stanza is a conclusion to both stories; Nowlan recreates the image of the death of Christ symbolically through the death of the “Bull Moose”. Nowlan again produces a final image; the moose as a divine a “scaffolded king”, “gathers his strength” and “roars”. As the “Bull Moose” falls “the young men lean on the automobile horns” and like a conquering army rejoice in their content with no knowledge of the pain they have inflicted. The allegory in this poem is really the chronicle of Christ, but what Nowlan very effectively accomplishes is to use a moose and transform it into an image of a king, a helpless martyr, a holy creature, one who like god should be above all else. In doing so, Pratt builds a powerful statement of the violent nature of the human race, against all the innocent, helpless members of this world.
E. J. Pratt’s “The Prize Cat” is a short poem but nonetheless contains strong symbolic reference in an underlying allegorical framework. Pratt attempts to make a potent statement of the violence within civilization’s past, now hidden within the faultless label of the domesticated world. Like the story of Christ his allegorical figure lies in history during the British Occupation and massacre in Abyssinian, Ethiopia during the 19th century. In the first 3 stanzas before the reference to Abyssinia; Pratt’s, use of imagery, surrounds his description of the cat. The cat acts as a symbol of the British and the developed world at large but does not become apparent until the last stanza of the poem. Unlike the “Bull moose” the cat is the only symbol in the 1st three stanzas but Pratt’s use of descriptive writing paints a clear image of the allegorical figure he is trying to create. Pratt uses phrases such as “pure blood” and “soft mannered” a clear description of a domesticated cat, but also the image of a cultured English gentleman. The image of an educated man and sense of calmness in his sound is developed, in the second line, when the cat is described as “musical in purr”.
Pratt effectively states his allegorical message on civilization in the second line of the third stanza. To create this image he writes, as “time has thinned” the cat has lost the “jungle strains within the cells”. Like the domesticated cat, humans once wild, violent and untamed, have lost their “jungle” like temperament. In the 4th and 5th stanza Pratt expands his allegorical framework and introduces the bird or “whitethroat” a second figure or symbol. When looking beyond the literate Pratt has used the “bird” as a symbol to create the image of an innocent Abyssinian child. Pratt’s point does become clear until the last two line of the 5th stanza but the image is clearly attached to the symbolic narrative. Within the narrative Pratt does not see a bird, but an “Abyssian child” who “cried out in the whitethroats scream”. The symbolism, allegory, and image are explained directly from these quotes. Pratt has restricted his symbolism by using the “bird” as a concrete image of a child becoming a victim of the dangerous prowess of the civilized world. The “cat” is a symbol of are domesticated society and although it might seem tempered, domesticated and kind, the “jungle strains” remain hidden ready to pounce like the “reflex spring of a cat”.
Nowlan’s “The Bull Moose” and Pratt’s “The Prize Cat” are both similar poems in that they make powerful statements on humanity and cleverly hide it within images of allegorical figures and symbols. The moose, cat, and bird, all relate as animals within the narrative, but differ symbolically when looking beyond the literate significance of their characters. Like any good poem, we once again see that imagery plays a vital role in the search for what meaning underlies its words.
